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faith

christians

Three Things You Need to Know About Evangelicals

There is a developing movement within literature to chronicle an outsider’s perspective on the strange land of Evangelical Christianity.  It seems that the world sees all Evangelical Christians as fervent, ignorant, and misguided by a holy book.  Being an Evangelical myself, I can see how the outside world can group all Evangelicals into this stereotype.  The media tends to pick up on the extremes of any group, ideology, or religion and usually tries gives us the most radical angle.   You would think that I would NOT recommend books about non-Christians views on Christianity, but there are two books that are worthy of your consideration about strangers in a strange land that yield some surprising insights.

In the first book,  A Jew Among the Evangelicals, by Mark Pinsky, he provides a brief introduction: a religion reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, uses his unique position as a Jew covering evangelical Christianity to help nonevangelicals understand the hopes, fears, and motivations of this growing subculture and breaks down some of the stereotypes that nonevangelicals have of evangelicals.  “I hope you’ll find laughter, perhaps puzzlement, and heartfelt interest in how people just like you wrestle with feelings, values, and beliefs that touch the core of their beings. And I hope you’ll catch a glimpse of someone learning to understand and get along with folks whose convictions differ from his own,” Pinsky writes in the introduction.

The second book, The Unlikely Disciple is by Kevin Roose.  Roose leaves his Ivy League setting to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Christian college. The book gives this description: “His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to choir practice at Falwell’s legendary Thomas Road Baptist Church.  He experiments with prayer, participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds)… He meets pastors’ kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell’s life.”

Both of these books provide 3 things you should consider before judging Evangelical Christianity:

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Churches

Young People Don't Go To Church, or Do They?

There is a common misconception that young people are fleeing churches.   So many churches ask, “Where are all the young people?”   My friend Rev. Elizabeth Hagen on her blog discussed a similar topic a few weeks ago and gave some great thoughts on understanding young adults.  Christianity Today published an article discussing the ministry of Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City.   Most of the article is geared toward Keller’s ministry and his bio.  The whole article is great, but the article begins with:

His church, Redeemer Presbyterian, has five crowded Sunday services in three rented locations—Keller dashes between them—with an average total attendance of 5,000. The service at Hunter is the largest, the “tourist service.” (For many years, Redeemer deliberately avoided publicity, but word has spread lately, and Keller estimates that hundreds of out-of-towners show up each Sunday.) Well over 2,000 people—mainly young whites and Asians you would expect to be sleeping off a late Saturday night—have come to this morning’s service.

Wow, “young people” in church… on Sunday morning no less.  What is due to this great success?  It has got to be a young hip preacher and cool band leading worship.  Nope.

Redeemer’s worship is seemly traditional. Instead of using video monitors, casually dressed worshipers follow a 20-page bulletin that includes hymns, prayers, and Bible texts. Organ and a brass quartet lead the music. For evening services, jazz musicians play contemporary Christian songs.

Standing 6’4″, with a bald head, glasses, and a coat and tie, Keller, 58, does not look hip. Nor is his sermon funny, charming, or daring. He preaches from the first chapter of Genesis, on the doctrine of Creation.  Keller speaks like a college professor, absorbed in his content, of which there is a lot

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NFL

The Celebrities I Met & What I Learned About Their Faith

 

Ben Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger

Earlier this year, a friend and a parishioner at my former church in Maryland asked me if I would like to give the invocation prayer again at the National Football League’s Players Gala and James Brown Awards.  Last year, I gave the invocation prayer at the event and got to meet James Brown (of CBS Sports), Bill Cower (former coach of the Pittsburg Steelers and Super Bowl winning coach), and other NFL players who were nominated for the “JB Award” for outstanding community involvement.  The gala also serves as a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.  This year, I happily accepted the invitation again and got to meet Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburg Steelers Quarterback and Super Bowl Champion), Clinton Portis (Washington Redskin running back and Pro-Bowl starter), and Larry Fitzgerald (Arizona Cardinal wide receiver and Pro-Bowl MVP).

As I was traveling to the event, I could not help but wonder what place does a prayer have at a professional sports fundraiser and award show?  Sure, as a pastor I believe that we should desire to acknowledge God at these functions, but what do professional athletes think about prayer and invoking the name of God publicly?  Do these men of mega strength actively seek God out?  Sometimes after professional sports games on television players will mention God in passing as if God was a mere minor character in the player’s life.  Or during an interview, when professional athletes mention God more specifically and in great length the interviewer will cut off the athlete move on to more “important” facets of the game such as what edge the athlete had or what the athlete did before the game.  Still, some acknowledge “The Almighty”, “God”, or just “being blessed” but rarely mention “Jesus.”  In my mind, NFL players were not known for putting Christ as the center of their lives, either privately or publicly.

As I walked around the gala at the Washington D.C. Hilton and started to meet and take pictures with the players, I introduced myself and

John Riggins

John Riggins

mentioned my role in the program.  Most players did not say much, but they did allow me to take a picture with them.  As the time ticked down to my brief moment of prayer, I was ushered backstage and waited for my cue.  As I was waiting, I saw James Brown (J.B.) of CBS Sports, who is the driving force behind recognizing NFL Players and their community involvement at the event.  I decided to introduce myself and what I was doing there.  J.B., a former football player, affectionately embraced me and started to share with me in great length about his involvement with local pastors, local churches, prayer, accountability partners, and working with other religious organizations.  He also opened up about his faith in Christ.

J.B. also said something that got my attention.  In a very humble way, he said, “You know, what we do out there is something that is done only by the Holy Spirit.  You and I, do this for His sake, not ours.” Wow!  Here is a celebrity acknowledging the Holy Spirit.   He continued to speak about his faith in Christ and he said he enjoyed our time together as fellow brothers in Christ.  He also inquired about my journey with God, my ministry, my connection with the event, and my collegiate career in lacrosse.

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worship

Does My Church Look Like a Warehouse?

For the last 20 or 25 years, it has become popular a church to build their worship and ministry space to look like a warehouse or storehouse (or use an actual warehouse).  After being a part of three capital improvement projects at three different churches, I have found there is a whole theology to church buildings.

The “Emergent” or “Emerging Church” and ultra contemporary church movement has found that many people are attracted to buildings that do not include religious symbols.  And, church buildings  should be more utilitarian than religious. Most of the time, building a church in a warehouse is an economical way to do church.   Aside from the  “store front” church, churches who desire to tone down a worship space do so for marketing reasons.  Mega and ultra contemporary churches try to draw in burned out Christians or seekers (the unchurched) who want church to be different than the traditional church service (3 hymns, sermon, and altar call).

Christianity Today wrote an intriguing article about how there is now a reverse trend in trying to attract seekers to churches.  The trend seems to be that now seekers and churches are reconsidering what they thought they wanted in a church building.  The article cites a survey which states that seekers  prefer a church to look like, well… a church.   The article reads:

….unchurched adults prefer Gothic church buildings to utilitarian ones, challenging the conventional wisdom that medieval-looking churches feel out-of-touch and stuffy to seekers.  LifeWay showed over 1,600 unchurched adults four pictures of church buildings, ranging from mall-like to Gothic. The majority preferred the most ornate church.

Not exactly scientific, but this survey shows that deep down inside, a church’s building says a lot about how the church sees itself regarding theology, evangelism, and Christ.  This study came out of  LifeWay, the publishing and ministry arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is my firm belief that people want to seek the Divine in church community and in worship.  Based on anecdotal evidence, I have found that there is a segment of the church going population, who after several years at a ultra contemporary/mega church, desire to recapture the essence of what it means to worship, learn, live in faith, and fellowship in a congregation that seeks to be more dynamic and deeper in their approach.  Over the years, I have been a big fan of Robert Webber, who died recently.  Webber who began life as a Baptist and then switched denominations to become an Episcopalian, rediscovered liturgical worship with a contemporary twist.  In his book, Ancient-Future Faith he states:

Worship Renewal, then, is not a matter of gimmicks, but the recovery of the Christian vision of reality enacted by the community of God.  pg. 32

Then, Webber goes on to say:

In the 1980’s evangelicals sought to neutralize space to make the seeker more comfortable.  This worked in the 1980’s but is not the way to go in the postmodern world.  The inquirer needs to be immersed within a space that bespeaks the Christian faith.  The very narrative of faith which we seek to know and live is symbolically expressed in our space… Space becomes the visual image of the connection between the known and unknown. pg. 108

For Webber, and I agree, worship and our church buildings communicate who God is.  Symbols are important.  Symbols point to a great reality.  The cross is a symbol.  The communion table is a symbol.  The church is a symbol.  If we neutralize a church space, then are we neutralizing the symbol of the church?   Postmodernity has indeed reshaped our understanding.  Webber addresses the church within postmodernity:

In a postmodern world that has become increasingly interested in communication and space, it will be necessary to feature the relational seating of God people around the symbols of water, the pulpit, and the Table.  These are the primary visual images of God’s work in the history of salvation. pg. 108

I have a number of engaged couples who come from other churches looking for a church to get married in because their church does not “look” like a church.  They do not worship in a traditional looking church, but they want to get married in one.  That just shows how our culture is evolving and how Christians view worship space.

Churches and pastors should resist the empty showy gimmicks and trendy ideas about church and worship.  Instead, we must seek to put a theology behind our church and church buildings instead of only relying on marketing tactics.  There is a richness contained in the 2,000 years of worship, teaching, and theology that the church mothers and fathers have given to us.   There is nothing “wrong” with a contemporary church that meets in a warehouse, but the trend of the lack of Christian symbols and lack of focus upon theologically centered worship space is troubling.   When churches are able, they should think about building or obtaining a worship space that reflects Christian theology.  I should make it clear that many people have come to Christ in these trendy churches and these churches are meeting a need.   But, at some point, people are going to want more than flashy lights, loud bands, and Starbucks.

What do you think?

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